Storm Zon Viability?

Been looking at Storm Zon... but it seems to me to be a very weak build. Both the spec set (Zerae's) as well as some of the skills seem to force you into being a pseudo-melee caster (kind of like an unholy pally), but the skillset doesn't appear to have enough survivability skills to keep you alive in tougher ubers. Am I wrong in this summation? Is this build still viable? The guide in the guide forums is hugely outdated, which indicates that the build is probably non-viable atm.

there is more than just 1 way to play a stromzon you know .

The build is actually very good and very tanky to be honest.

melee stormzon is good if you build properly.

caster stormzon (from guide) is "outdated" but all the gear is the same besides some pierce numbers. works great still.

L H wrote:melee stormzon is good if you build properly.

caster stormzon (from guide) is "outdated" but all the gear is the same besides some pierce numbers. works great still.

I'm guessing caster would be more viable though? I mean i just don't see how that skillset allows you to stand toe to toe with anything significant for very long.

Skeptic_Zero wrote:
L H wrote:melee stormzon is good if you build properly.

caster stormzon (from guide) is "outdated" but all the gear is the same besides some pierce numbers. works great still.

I'm guessing caster would be more viable though? I mean i just don't see how that skillset allows you to stand toe to toe with anything significant for very long.

max balance, asterism, and some gear gives you 350k + defense and 30% or higher DR. fire elemental summons in front of you with defensive harmony put 50% slow on anything that attacks them or you, etc

You know I really like the idea of melee-zon but to be honest I think it should have had its own tree kind of like how Paladins have one Caster and one Melee Caster tree (except DONE RIGHT) when I heard the first time about Amazon getting a lightning tree and saw the Stormcall skill

and the Magnetic field skill

I thought those two would be like the quote on quote
"the meat" of the build and they would be used in tandem kind of like how you like cast Terror Strike

or
Solar Flare

but I was so wrong.. they were both seperate skills of seperate builds my train of thought was like... you cast Magnetic Field baam mobs get "magnetized" and then you cast Stormcall and SHABLAMO ! lightning struck the magnetized monsters! I thought that was the idea of the whole skill tree :mrgreen:

the first time I tried the skill tree I was tad bit disappointed in all honesty It was nothing like I imagined which wasn't bad per say but I thought it was absolute garbage until there was a guide posted :lol:

quite typical Median thing ? wouldn't you say ? One person posts a guide or a video about a build :cheese:

and then suddenly it becomes mainstream and everybody plays it on ladder :-]

and then....
You know what happens later to the build :hammer:

Darthaghar wrote:[...] like how Paladins have one Caster and one Melee Caster tree (except DONE RIGHT)

Holy caster and done right? :lol:

Stormcall is an exceptional skill. Screenwide AoE with 2 damage types. Which other build has anything close to that? There's not even a need for a skill for bosses, since you just have to put 1 point into summon flame elementals. They not only tank the bosses. They also do crazy damage when they get killed. On my bloodzon I use those elementals to kill most bosses even though my smaxed magic missiles do quite a good amount of single target damage. But those elementals are simply better concerning damage output against those bosses considering that they also keep them at distance.

Since Hammer of Zarae was buffed to 150% wdm, it's become quite useful as well. you can easily reck lots of enemies and it doesn't only get strong with + skills but it also scales with wdm.

So yeah, both paths are very viable options. Imho that single skill tree is better balanced than pala holy specs. (unholy specs are still balanced)

You can't really compare different class's trees with intentional differences.

L H wrote:You can't really compare different class's trees with intentional differences.

Tbh I have a different opinion. There are multiple things that you can compare skilltrees with. The game flow for example, just to mention the most important one.